


Homecoming (A Scandal Westeros Flashback)

by SkinnyBlackGirl



Series: Scandal: Westeros (Bonus Cuts) [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Scandal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Family Fluff, House Martell, Implied Violence, Modern Dorne, Modern Westeros, Politics, Scandal-Westeros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29320227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkinnyBlackGirl/pseuds/SkinnyBlackGirl
Summary: One-shot. Three years before the current Scandal Westeros timeline.On the eve of a trip to the North to join Robb Stark's campaign for People's Council, Sarella Sand is called to Dorne for a family emergency. After years away from Sunspear, her journey home immediately calls up memories—some innocent, others not so much—as she reunites with two of her older sisters.
Relationships: Daemon Sand/Sarella Sand
Series: Scandal: Westeros (Bonus Cuts) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954129
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Homecoming (A Scandal Westeros Flashback)

**Author's Note:**

> As of February 5th, 2021 the #ScandalWesteros universe is one year old! 
> 
> When I started this series last year, I knew I had a vast universe with a wealth of potential stories to tell, but I never thought a year later I’d have EIGHT stories (six in the regular timeline and two flashbacks/bonus cuts) under my belt with endless opportunities for more storylines. Nor did I anticipate my little cross-over, with a minor character at the forefront, would gain so many loyal readers, but wow! Here we are. 
> 
> To commemorate this first anniversary (of what could be many? Who knows?), here is a little flashback one-shot of the Sand Snakes three years before our current story. We’ll go to Dorne, get a quick look at Sarella’s childhood and Obara’s back story and...finally meet a Sand Snake who has been kept off the page so far (I’m so excited to introduce her). 
> 
> The ending’s a little abrupt, but I wanted to give you all a little taste as a fun thank you for all your support over the last year. I hope you enjoy it!

**_Dorne  
_ ** **_2017 AC (three years before our current storyline)_**

_“On behalf of Prince Doran and the Royal Family, we welcome you to the Meria Martell International Airport in the Sovereign Principality of Dorne. The weather in Sunspear today is a mild 99 degrees with a minor sand storm watch in effect until 8:00 PM…”_

“Welcome back to Dorne, Ms. Sand. Will you require an escort to our VIP curbside pick up area?” 

“No, thank you,” Sarella lifts her sunglasses when she spots a fire engine red 1983 Dodge Viper pull up where she expected a chauffeured car. She should have known Nymeria would bring one of her “babies” out on the open road to pick her up. There aren’t nearly enough open highways for her in King's Landing.

Desert heat bites her skin on her short walk to Nym’s car and the blast of cool air that greets her when the door opens is sweet relief. 

“The Prodigal Sand Snake returns,” Nym quips as Sarella eases into the passenger seat. 

“It hasn’t been _that_ long.” Though as soon as she says it, Sarella realizes she hasn’t been to Sunspear since her cousin Arianne’s 30th birthday party two years ago. “Nice wheels. Who gave you this one?” 

“Remember Father’s old Viper?” 

_Too_ well. Sarella specifically remembers a summer night in Oberyn’s garage eleven years ago when Daemon Sand had her spread out on the car’s hood. “Wasn’t that car blue?” 

Running black manicured nails over the gear shift, Nym sighs lovingly. “Now it’s red. Father gave it to me last year for my birthday.” 

Back in Dorne for twenty minutes and she’s already sitting in a car she had sex on as a teenager. 

_Welcome home, Sarella._

Normally, her older sister is chatty, but as they drive toward the long stretch of desert leading to the Martell compound, the weight of the occasion fills the car with silence. They would either talk about _it_ or say nothing at all and Sarella needs to know what she’s in for when they arrive at the palace.

“So, how is she?” 

Nymeria inhales sharply, checking her peripheral vision before switching lanes on the highway. “Physically? She’s in one piece and there are no obvious signs of sexual assault. They have her in some post-mission protocol to deal with whatever trauma she endured down there. That's as much as Daemon will tell us. ” 

In the days since Sarella learned that Obara’s cover was blown on a mission to take out a cartel leader in Qarth, she told herself that her eldest sister is a professional trained by the sharpest, fiercest operatives in the known world. She has a steel spine and an iron will. If anyone could handle a couple of days in a Qarthene dungeon, Obara Olyvia Sand could. 

Couldn’t she? 

“Where's Father? And when can we see her?"

“He stayed long enough to get her settled at the facility and went back to Naath to join Ellaria and the girls. We can go first thing tomorrow morning.” 

Nodding, Sarella stares out of the window watching the gold and orange hills stretch into infinity beyond the two-lane highway. The endless desert reminds her of the first time Oberyn brought her to Dorne. With a name like Sarella Xanai Morgana Qo-Sand, she had no choice but to have a firm grasp on the idea of having two families, even at age five. And though she’d only seen her father when he visited her mother’s home in Jhala, young Sarella knew she had two homes. The new one, with its rocky red mountains and miles of dry desert, looked dead compared to the lush greenery of where she grew up.

 _“Where are all the plants and animals?”_ Sadness filled her tiny voice as she gazed out of the windows in Oberyn’s armored car. Her father’s eyes shone like black diamonds as he told her about the snakes and scorpions who made their homes in the sand. And how centuries of Dornishmen and women, much like the clever reptiles, had used the deserts to their advantage in ancient wars. Then, he’d rolled up his sleeve to show her an elaborate tattoo of a red viper wrapped around a spear. 

_“Never forget that the snake is the most deadly, cunning animal in the desert. And you, my darling, are a little viper.”_

Unfortunately, even the most elusive little vipers could be captured. 

The land slowly shifts around them, signaling their closeness to the royal estate. Barren sands give way to patches of desert grass that grow more bountiful as they head south. Then, cacti. Succulents. Until the narrow highway widens and rows of palm trees line the street on each side. After driving through two security checkpoints, they arrive at the gold gate bearing the spear-pierced sun sigil of the Martell family. 

No matter how many times she enters these gates, Sunspear never gets old. 

Not the long courtyard, with its narrow wading pool surrounded by lavish gardens. Not the elaborately-decorated ceramic tiles in the interior, an architectural nod to the family’s Rhoynish heritage. Nor the official palace library with its rows and rows of books, where Sarella could still lose herself for hours at a time when she put her mind to it. 

Then, there are other memories. Summers of her young adulthood when her curiosity turned toward her body and its pleasures. And when Daemon agreed to help her explore them, she found new ways to lose time at Sunspear. Midnight skinny dipping in the south wing pool where he pinned her against the tiles. Lazy afternoons in the cabana, twisted in bedsheets, memorizing his tattoos with her fingertips. Her legs spread on the hood of her father's car, trying to keep her screams from carrying through the garage while his tongue danced between her thighs. 

She's had other lovers—skilled lovers. None as talented at slowly torturing her and making her love it. Which is why every now and then, when their schedules allow and she requires Daemon's particular brand of satisfaction...she indulges. 

Not this trip, though. This trip is about Obara.

With Oberyn and Ellaria on vacation with their two youngest sisters, Little Elia training for the Olympics, and Obella in Myr on a fashion internship, the elder Sand Snakes have the run of their father’s wing of the palace. Her old room has been prepped for her arrival, including a gold-engraved invitation to join Arianne for breakfast tomorrow, and regrets on behalf of Uncle Doran who is away at the Water Gardens.

Once Sarella’s showered and settled into a pair of yellow, wide-legged cotton pants and a matching camisole with her freshly-washed hair in a puff of wet corkscrews atop her head, she heads to the parlor to join Nym and Tyene for pre-dinner drinks. 

The sitting area is off of a large open-air balcony and a cool night breeze blows through the columns as Sarella walks down the hall marveling at the bright gibbous moon in the black sky and how it lights up the towering gold and pastel-colored domes across the palace grounds. Sometimes, this place feels every bit like the fairy tale she told her friends back on the Summer Isles when she bragged that her father was a prince who lived in a castle.

On a night this magical, it's hard _not_ to feel like a princess.

Her sisters are already down half a bottle of Dornish red when she arrives. Ever dramatic, even in her loungewear, Nym is in a loose-fitting, backless blood-red jumpsuit while Tyene wears a long, short-sleeved wrap dress that matches her baby blue eyes with her blonde hair in an artfully messy bun. At thirty-two, she still sounds like a blushing maiden when she greets Sarella with a warm hug and a chirpy “Little Sister,” as if they’re at a sorority social. 

At first blush, Tyene Aliandra Sand stands out among her sisters; the lone blue-eyed blonde with none of Oberyn’s swarthy features, but anyone unlucky enough to go against the young attorney in a courtroom knows that her conservative Chanel suits and pearls hide enough venom to rival any of her sisters’. 

Around a coffee table lined with wine, dragon peppers, and an array of fruits and cheeses, the three sisters catch up on the details of everyday life. Nym shows off photos from a YiTish diplomat's yacht party that she recently attended. Tyene bemoans the downtown real estate market as she and her partner of five years, Dagos Manwoody, are looking to move into a townhouse. And Sarella previews an upcoming job that she’s sure will put her on the map: deputy campaign manager on Robb Stark’s campaign for a seat on the People’s Council. 

Then she’ll be well on her way to formally launching her own crisis consulting firm. She already has an expert hacker ready to join her. Eventually, she’ll woo Nymeria away from the Dornish Embassy in King’s Landing, but family or not, her big sister won’t budge unless the money’s right. And maybe... _maybe_ they can convince Obara to leave Father's team of super-spies for a less risky profession.

She considers asking Tyene to join her, but Ashara has her on the partner track at Dayne and Associates. It would take the Old Gods and the New to get Tyene out of Dorne.

“I’d ask who you’re seeing these days. But I already know this one’s banging her way through the top half of the _Fortune 100_ ,” Tyene points to Nymeria, then Sarella. “And that you’re ‘too busy’ to bang anyone. Do I have that right?” 

“You Dornish are so brash,” Sarella teases in an exaggerated version of the sing-song accent of the Summer Tongue. "My people don't kiss and tell."

“Remind me Sarella,” Nym muses. “Which part of your heritage were you honoring when you and Daemon were fucking all over the palace grounds way back when?” 

As if she needs another reminder of her time with Daemon. Sarella gets up to retrieve another bottle of wine, avoiding the conversation entirely. 

Tyene clears her throat, turning on her best courtroom voice. “Do I detect a hostile witness? Perhaps because she intends to relive her youthful indiscretions with one Daemon Sand while they’re both in town?” 

“Need I remind you both that our sister just spent four days in a Qarthene dungeon? I'm not here to get laid." 

"You can't do both?" Tyene taps her chin. "Though, I'd give Daemon some conditions. You shouldn't let him touch you until he brings us that drug lord's head on a platter."

Coming from anyone else, Sarella would take it as a joke but she knows Tyene too well. Sure enough, her eyes have hardened into twin blue flames, unflinching under Sarella and Nym’s questioning stares. “He _tortured_ our _sister_. Anything less than his head is utterly unacceptable."

"While I don't disagree on wanting that bastard's head," Nym says. "Let's not trade Sarella's cunt for it. She should only give that away for fun."

Tyene raises a brow. "Nymeria Moraine, you give it away for vintage luxury cars."

"I _only_ give it away for fun. Some women get a room full of roses after a good time; I get a 2001 convertible Sand Steed with a v12 engine."

Shaking her head, Sarella removes the cork and fills a 20 oz glass with Dornish Red. This is going to be a long trip. Perhaps she should get laid after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I LOVE world-building, so I loaded this story with fun details tying modern Dorne to its canon version: 
> 
> * Meria Martell's "This is Dorne, return at your peril" is one of the best lines in any of the books, so it was only right to name the airport after her.
> 
> * Obara's and Nymeria's middle names ("Olyvia" and "Moraine") are inspired by Olyvar and Mors, the children the Princess of Dorne lost between having Doran and Elia (may I add here that it is CRIMINAL that GRRM never named Doran, Elia, and Oberyn's mom).
> 
> * Tyene's middle name is inspired (obviously) by the famous, fiery Princess Aliandra Martell.
> 
> * Sarella's Dornish middle name "Morgana" is inspired by Morgan, the founder of House Martell. While we haven't met Sarella's mother on the page (yet), that Sarella has two middle names and two last names should give you a hint of the type of woman she is. lol. 
> 
> * Nymeria's car reference (the 2001 Sand Steed) is a play on the type of horse she rides in canon.
> 
> We're used to seeing Sarella be bossy and in control, but in bringing her to her childhood home, I wanted to show her a little subdued and vulnerable since she's the youngest of four sisters with really strong personalities.


End file.
